Naomi Klein: What do you do?

Naomi Klein: How would I describe it? I guess I see myself as a . . . as a . . . as an educator. Much of what I do is . . . it’s research and then explaining that research in as accessible a way as I can. So there’s a lot of different stages to what I do, so it’s a little hard to describe. I mean sometimes there’s the information gathering time, which is where it’s really important to just be a fly on the wall. And that’s, you know, whenever I’m traveling, whether it’s Iraq, or New Orleans, tsunami affected Sri (5:56) Lanka – where it’s really about just absorbing as much information as I can and being as invisible as I can, and really just like a conduit I guess. And that’s a particular kind of travel, and I get to . . . It’s quite a difficult kind of travel because you’re going to high risk places. And then . . . and then there’s the hiding phase, which is the processing of that information; putting it into an analytic framework, reading, thinking, writing, which is a very lonely process, and really the opposite of that engaged kind of travel out there in the world. And then the third stage is explaining it; taking it, talking to journalists about it, and more importantly to me you know talking to audiences of people who have read the work and want to learn more, and engage, and think about what to do next. So there’s many different phases. And to me it’s really important to not just do one thing. You know not just . . . just report, and not bother explaining and popularizing, you know and not just give speeches over and over again and not renew with new research. So it’s a cycle. Recorded on: 11/29/07

Even the optimists among us would have to admit 2018 was a challenging year. The fractured world that became the focus of our 2018 Annual Meeting a year ago came under further pressure from populist rhetoric and rising nationalist agendas. At the same time, the urgent need for coordinated global action in areas such as climate change, inequality and the impact of automation on jobs became more intense.